Golf is a daunting sport for anyone, including world-class professional athletes like NFL and former New York Giants All-Pro wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who, as a newly minted Cleveland Brown, recently asked for help with his swing via Instagram.
So, we asked Golf Tips Top 25 Instructor, New York native and longtime Giants fan Tom Patri — who, for a while, counted Giants owner John Mara among his students — to analyze Beckham’s move.
Hope you’re listening, Odell — and that goes for all our readers, too.
TP’S ANALYSIS
Watch The Plant Foot — The thing that jumps out at me about Odell, especially for a great athlete, is how poor his foot work is. His left foot, which I refer to in my teaching as the “plant foot,” is spinning out. It should serve as a point of stability! In his case it is far too over active. This leads to excessive loss of balance, therefore poor contact.
To The Bank — Next, the way Odell’s right foot works is incorrect — heel to toe rather then understanding a “banking” action (as my dear friend and teaching genius Bob Grissett calls it). Banking is a movement to the instep of the right foot before pivoting gradually from heel to toe (as Tiger Woods demonstrates in the photo). Odell therefore destroys any chance of stability of the lower body as he attempts to deliver a forward leaning club shaft, hence poor comprehension …
